Research Centres
The Cambridge/Homerton Research and Teaching Centre for Children’s Literature
The Centre has several distinctive features in comparison to other existing centres in the UK. Its members have unique expertise in poetry, film and multimedial texts, including picturebooks, as well as in teaching and promoting writing for children. The team has a strong international focus and a special interest in historical and sociocultural perspectives on children’s literature. We offer an exemplary balance of literary, aesthetic and educational approaches to the subject, as well as substantial theoretical expertise and wide experience of conducting empirical research in the field. We have strong links with the artistic community of authors, artists and poets (the Poet Laureate is an Honorary Homerton Fellow) and literary and artistic institutions such as the Arts Council, Poetry Society, Poetry Book Society, Book Trust, and British Council.
Canadian Children’s Book Centre
The Canadian Children’s Book Centre (CCBC) is a national, not-for-profit organization, founded in 1976. It is dedicated to encouraging, promoting and supporting the reading, writing, illustrating and publishing of Canadian books for young readers. Its programs, publications, and resources help teachers, librarians, booksellers and parents select the very best for young readers.
Center for Children’s Literature and Culture (University of Florida)
The Center for Children’s Literature and Culture is an interdisciplinary center based in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Florida. Members of the Center include faculty and researchers from the University community; teachers, librarians, media specialists, and others working directly with children; and artists and writers creating works for children in print and other media. Its purpose is to encourage the exploration of this vital area of cultural life through scholarly and critical investigations; through meetings, symposia, and seminars; and through the development of innovative ways to make the research and concerns of its members available to the general public.
Center for Interdisciplinary Studies of Youth and Space (San Diego State University)
The Center for Interdisciplinary Studies of Youth and Space (ISYS) conducts research that deepens our knowledge base regarding the geographic spaces of children, families, and communities at scales from personal to local to global. ISYS also provides a community-consulting program that partners with youth serving organizations and policy-makers to inform policies and improve programs that impact children and young people.
Center for the Study of Youth and Political Conflict (University of Tennessee, Knoxville)
The Center for the Study of Youth and Political Conflict was founded on the belief that much can be done to better understand the way young people experience political conflict and to strengthen efforts to assist them in leading constructive lives. The center engages in research, interventions, program evaluations, and dissemination of information about youth and political conflict. The goal of all our work is to provide research-based information for practitioners and policy-makers who seek to address the needs of this unique population.this unique population.
Centre for Children and Young People (Southern Cross University)
The CCYP promotes the status and voice of children and young people through its research, education, and advocacy activities. The work of the CCYP is facilitated by a team of interdisciplinary researchers working collaboratively with practitioners and policy makers to enhance the well being of children and young people in their families, schools and communities.
Centre for Children and Young People’s Participation (University of Central Lancashire)
The Centre is a forum for shared thinking – Promoting seminars, workshops, conferences, publications – Planning a programme of research – Building links between academics, policy makers and practitioners – Developing international links. Our themes include: Children and young people’s participation in decision-making; Children and young people’s inclusion (in relation to ethnicity, poverty, disability and ill-health, care, etc); Migration and child refugees; Children’s rights and citizenship.
Centre for Children’s Book Studies (Anglia Ruskin University)
The Centre for Children’s Book Studies reflects the strengths of several research areas within Anglia Ruskin University: the Cambridge School of Art, the Faculty of Education, and the Department of English, Communication, Film and Media. The Centre works closely with the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge, bringing together theory and practice through an ongoing collaboration between staff and students across the two institutions. We consider the material book as a historical, cultural, and artistic object which relates to a variety of disciplines.
Centre for Children’s Literature and Media (Aarhus University)
The research at the Centre for Children’s Literature and Media works with children’s current use of media, new and older children’s literature in the medium-term perspective, digital and analogue youth literature, and the circulation of children’s and youth literature in the book market now and in the past.
Centre for the History of Childhood (University of Oxford)
The History Faculty has recently established a Centre for the History of Childhood. This is the first centre for the history of childhood in the United Kingdom, and it is hoped that its creation will help to foster interest in this burgeoning area of historical research within and without the University. The Centre exists both to promote research into the history of childhood and to encourage links between historians and childcare professionals in the belief that close association between the two will be of mutual benefit.
The Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies of Translation and Mediation for and by Children at the University of Bologna – Forlì Campus is dedicated to research on translation and linguistic mediation in terms of genre. The Centre is a point of international reference, offers a wide range of bibliographic resources, theoretical materials (domestic and foreign), and promotes research initiatives and collaborations with other centres, organizations, or similar associations.
Centre for the Study of Childhood and Youth (University of Sheffield)
CSCY is an interdisciplinary research centre for the study of childhood and youth. It has seven core objectives: to bring together interdisciplinary perspectives on the study of childhood and youth that can inform policy and academic debates; to break new theoretical ground in childhood and youth studies informed by the diverse experiences and perspectives of children and youth; to develop methodological approaches to the study of childhood and youth that can cross disciplinary boundaries and epistemologies; to become a Centre of excellence for postgraduate research in childhood and youth studies; to maintain and further develop partnerships with policy and user communities, locally, nationally and internationally; to build international collaborations for the comparative academic study of childhood and youth; and to disseminate research findings to children and young people.
Centre for Young People’s Literature and Culture
The Centre for Young People’s Literature and Cultures at the Institute of English Studies at the University of Wroclaw was established in 2003 and conducts a variety of activities aimed at both the research of literature and culture for children and youth, as well as the promotion of these areas through workshops, competitions, special courses and other similar initiatives.
Centre for Youth and Society (University of Victoria)
At the Centre for Youth and Society (CFYS), we design and conduct interdisciplinary research, promote collaboration with partners, and respond to emerging priorities affecting youth and their families. Our Centre unites researchers, students, and community partners (including youth-led initiatives) toward youth well-being.
Centro Internacional del Libro Infantil y Juvenile
The Centro Internacional del Libro Infantil y Juvenil is the branch of the Fundación Germán Sánchez Ruipérez specialized in the field of children’s and young adults’ literature and reading promotion between children and young adults. Activities include specialization in analysis and selection of children’s and young adults’ materials and research and innovation in the fields of children’s and young adults’ literature and libraries.
Children, Youth and Environments Center for Community and Engagement
The Center undertakes interdisciplinary activities in research, teaching and community outreach that connect the worlds of research, policy and practice to improve young people’s environments. It focuses in particular on children and youth in environments of disadvantage and those with special needs.
Children’s Literature Unit at Newcastle University
The School of English at Newcastle University, U.K., is a national and international centre for the study of children’s books. Its Children’sLiterature Unit runs courses at both undergraduate and postgraduatelevels, and hosts numerous doctoral students. Its staff conduct research into many aspects of children’s books and culture, both historical and contemporary. The Children’s Literature Unit collaborates closely withSeven Stories, Newcastle’s new centre for the children’s book, sharing resources to encourage scholarship and public interest in children’s literature. Seven Stories holds an expanding archive of manuscripts, original illustrations, private papers and printed books by many of the leading British writers and illustrators of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Children’s Research Centre (The Open University)
The CRC is all about children by children. Our primary objective is to empower children and young people as active researchers. The CRC recognises that children are experts on their own lives. We value the child’s perspective and believe in promoting child voice by supporting children to carry out research on topics that are important to them.
Children’s Rights Centre (Cape Breton University)
The mandate of the CBU Children’s Rights Centre is to: conduct research on children’s rights and children’s issues, further public knowledge and education about children’s rights, monitor the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in Canada, provide a resource centre for students conducting research in children’s rights through courses, training and employment, and direct supervision of student research projects.
Graduate Centre for International Research in Childhood
The Graduate Centre for International Research in Childhood was established in the English Department at the University of Reading in Reading, England, in October 1996. Known as CIRCL for short, the Graduate Centre aims to promote and coordinate international and interdisciplinary academic research in childhood, focusing particularly on research in children and culture, children’s literature, and children and the media.
Finnish Institute for Children’s Literature
The Finnish Institute for Children’s Literature (SNI) established 1978, is a documentation, information and research centre. The institute’s three full time experts provide information to teachers, university students and members of the general public. The institute serves as a connecting link for organizations, researchers and individuals active in the field.
Institut Für Jungendliteratur (Austria)
Das Institut, das 1965 als gemeinnütziger Verein gegründet wurde, versteht sich als Service- und Kommunikationszentrum für den kinder- und jugendliterarischen Bereich. Zu unseren Aufgaben zählen neben unserer Beratungstätigkeit die Fort- und Weiterbildung von Vermittlergruppen, nationale und internationale Netzwerkbildungen und die Erarbeitung bzw. Vermittlung von Informationen, Datenbanken und Publikationen. Unser grundsätzliches Hauptanliegen ist die Steigerung des gesellschaftspolitischen Stellenwertes des Themas “Kinder- und Jugendliteratur.”
L’Institut International Charles Perrault (France)
L’institut international Charles Perrault est une association de loi 1901 a but non lucrative, fondee en 1994 par Jean Perrot, specialiste en litterature de jeunesse, en collaboration avec la ville d’Eaubonne et l’Université Paris 13, avec le concours des CRDP de Versailles et de Creteil et l’inspection academique du Val d’Oise.
Institute for Child and Youth Studies
The University of Lethbridge’s Institute for Child & Youth Studies (I-CYS) is a multidisciplinary research institute committed to examining what children and youth mean as social, demographic, artistic, legal, and existential categories. While strongly grounded in the humanities and social sciences, I-CYS connects scholars working in all disciplines and faculties at the University of Lethbridge and beyond.
International Forum for Research in Children’s Literature (University of Worcester)
The International Forum for Research in Children’s Literature (IFRCL) provides a focus for literary, cultural and socio-historical scholarly enquiry into writing for children, internationally. Its interests extend to broader fields, as they relate to children and childhood, including drama, performance studies, folklore, illustration and media.
International Institute for Children’s Literature (Japan)
A comprehensive international research, materials, and information center for children’s literature located in Osaka, Japan.
International Youth Library/Internationale Jugendbibliothek
The International Youth Library, housed in the late-medieval Blutenberg Castle, boasts the world’s largest collection of international children’s and youth literature. The International Youth Library’s fellowship programme has two primary goals: to support research in the field of international children’s and youth literature and illustration, and to promote academic exchange and international cooperation. For more details, see here.
Landon Pearson Centre for the Study of Childhood and Children’s Rights
The Landon Pearson Resource Centre was created with a powerful vision: every child in Canada will grow up aware of his or her rights and responsibilities and enabled to exercise them within a receptive and respectful society. The Centre began with a donation by Senator Pearson to Carleton University, which included her extensive collection of books, documents and reports collected over a lifetime of engagement with children. The collection also contains archival material that documents the evolution over time of perceptions of childhood and conception of children’s rights both in Canada and abroad.
The L.M. Montgomery Institute is housed in the Robertson Library at the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI), a post-secondary institution whose forebears were St. Dunstan’s University and Prince of Wales College (Montgomery’s own alma mater). The L.M. Montgomery Institute is dedicated to helping students and scholars learn about and study L.M. Montgomery’s life, works, and influence. The Institute is a centre for Montgomery studies with a focus on academic scholarship and a centre for the promotion of L.M. Montgomery with a focus on education, teaching, and increasing awareness of the author.
Manchester Centre for Youth Studies
The Manchester Centre for Youth Studies (MCYS) is an interdisciplinary research centre. Our vision is to become world leaders in enabling and creating youth-informed, youth-led research which will positively impact on young people’s lives and increase academic understanding. It is important that young people have the opportunity to participate in research that may affect them. MCYS embraces this participatory position as a research centre and strives to engage and collaborate with young people across the range of the centre’s activity through utilising Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR).
National Center for the Study of Children’s Literature (San Diego State University)
Nearly thirty years old, SDSU’s Children’s Literature Program is one of the oldest programs of its kind in the country. Among its faculty are leading scholars in Children’s literature, authors of numerous and distinguished books and essays in the field, and prize-winning researchers with national and international reputations.
Nordic Network for Children’s and Youth Culture (Nordic Council of Ministers)
The Nordic Council of Ministers’ portal for children’s and youth culture in all the Nordic countries, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and North-West Russia.
The Norwegian Institute for Children’s Books (NBI)
The Norwegian Institute for Children’s Books (NBI) is the national information centre and documentation archive of Norway for the literature of children and young people. The NBI receives government funding from the Ministry of Cultural and Church Affairs.
Sussex Centre for Folklore, Fairy Tales and Fantasy (University of Chichester)
The heart of this project is a focus on the importance of fairy tales as a creative force both in literature and culture. Literary fairy tales can be seen, in terms of genre, to mediate between, on the one hand, folktales, from which they often derive both form and content; and on the other, the more elaborate narratives of full-blown fantasy novels. The Centre will provide a forum where writers and scholars from various disciplines can discuss folk narratives, fairy tales and fantasy works, both as independent ‘genres’ (the literary fantastic, for example, may not always have obvious folk- or fairy-tale motifs), and also in terms of the resonances and dissonances between them, and other cultural forms.
The Swedish Institute for Children’s Books – Svenska barnboksinstitutet
The Swedish Institute for Children’s Books was founded in 1965 and:
- is a public research library
- collects and makes accessible literature for children and young people
- promotes knowledge about literature for children and young people in Sweden
- supports research and circulates inforamtion about research results
- is a national and interantional liaison body
- is financed by the Ministry of Education
- is a foundation of which the members are: The Swedish Institute Association of Illustrators, Stockholm University, The Swedish Publishers’ Association and The Swedish Writers’ Union.
Swiss Institute for Children’s and Young Adult’s Media
Das Schweizerische Institut für Kinder- und Jugendmedien SIKJM wurde im Januar 2002 gegründet. Es entstand aus dem Zusammenschluss des Schweizerischen Bund für Jugendliteratur (SBJ) mit dem Schweizerischen Jugendbuch-Institut (SJI). Leseförderung, Forschung und Dokumentation im Bereich Kinder- und Jugendliteratur sind seine Hauptaufgaben. Das Schweizerische Institut für Kinder- und Jugendmedien SIKJM verfügt über Zweigstellen in der Romandie und im Tessin. Es wird vom Bundesamt für Kultur, vom Staatssekretariat für Bildung und Forschung sowie von Stadt und Kanton Zürich mitunterstützt.